South West mum blog

On the buses: taking a toddler to the London Transport Museum

As bus spotting has become one of Scrip’s favourite past times, we felt taking her to the London Transport Museum for the morning was a fairly safe bet. I didn’t realise there would be so much for her to look at and tug at and clamber inside.

As it was my husband’s birthday, we all went together by bus, then tube, then a quick walk through the Piazza in Covent Garden before escaping the drizzle to see a lot of other, older tubes, trains and buses.

There was a little trail for bigger children to follow with stamps along the way but Scrip was content to run through the sliding doors at the entrance and then on from one exhibit to another, pausing to try and climb on some of the glass cases or point out ‘choo choos’.

It was actually really interesting and the snatches we saw between chasing around and carrying her every now and again made us both want to visit another time at a more sedate pace – especially as our tickets are valid for a year. But on Monday we raced through the displays – starting off the with the static Omnibuses and Hackney Cabs – complete with life-sized drivers and model horses – and down through to working models, levers to pull and buttons to press.

Then there were the actual retired carriages and buses which she was able to climb up the steps, inside and even up onto the seats. It’s not often you actually interact with the displays and all the children seemed to be enjoying it. We also spent a full three minutes watching her and two other little ones stand side by side and press buttons to move miniature lifts up and down. But the highlight was a room where tube art was projected onto the floor with bursts of colour and sound. The little ones loved it and were all darting and spinning around like mini disco-goers.

There was a picnic area and a play area for 0 – 6 year olds but it was quite busy and Scrip seemed happy enough weaving in and out through displays instead. After we’d taken the obligatory photos of her at the wheel of a double decker (very sweet) we had lunch in the little cafe which was great – although I think we also introduced her to chips via Daddy (not so great). I think we’ll need to get a bit more imaginative with her meal next time we’re out as her default cafe lunch seems to have become cheese sandwiches on white bread.

I thought the accessibility was great – there were ramps and lifts throughout the museum, although it wasn’t so good trying to get to the exhibition which involved some stairs.

And amazingly, we managed to keep Scrip awake throughout the tube ride home, so she could have a proper nap in her cot. Maybe she thought she was in another display?